Salons & Spas
Booth rental paperwork, tip reporting, retail margins, gift card tracking. Nobody mentioned the accounting would be this complicated.
You Built a Business Without Planning To
You were great at what you do. Clients followed you from one place to the next. Eventually it made sense to open your own salon or spa. The skills that got you here were creative and technical. Building a clientele. Delivering results. Reading what people want and giving it to them.
What came next was different. Payroll taxes, booth rental paperwork, tip reporting, retail sales tax, gift card accounting. Running the business side of a personal services business requires skills nobody taught you in cosmetology school or massage therapy training.
Who We Work With
Who We Work With
Hair salons, barbershops, nail salons, day spas, massage therapists, estheticians, med spas. Independent beauty professionals who own their space and serve their own clients in Scottsdale and Greater Phoenix.
The Situation
The Situation
You’re still working with clients most days. Bookkeeping happens late at night or not at all. Tax season is a scramble. You know the numbers aren’t right but you don’t know how wrong they are or where to start fixing them.
Classification and Compliance
The IRS takes worker classification seriously. If someone rents a booth from you, they’re an independent contractor and need to be treated that way in your records. If they’re your employee, different rules apply. Getting this wrong leads to back taxes, penalties, and audit exposure that can threaten the whole business.
Tip reporting is another compliance area most salons struggle with. Cash tips, card tips, tip pools. There are specific requirements for tracking and reporting, and most businesses are doing something slightly wrong without realizing it until an audit or a disgruntled employee brings it to light.
Booth Rental Setup
Booth Rental Setup
We document your booth rental arrangements properly. Lease agreements, payment records, and 1099 filings at year end. The paperwork supports your position if anyone ever questions how your stylists are classified.
Tip Tracking
Tip Tracking
Cash and card tips both need proper handling. We set up systems to track tip income accurately so your reporting to the IRS matches reality. No surprises at tax time or during payroll audits.
Where the Numbers Get Fuzzy
Retail products represent tied-up cash. Products that sit on shelves too long, walk out the door unnoticed, or expire before selling erode your margins silently. Without inventory tracking, you have no idea if your retail operation makes money or quietly loses it month after month.
Gift cards and prepaid service packages create another blind spot. When someone pays $200 for a package, that’s not income until you deliver the services. Recording it upfront inflates your taxable income and hides your true cash position. Breakage on unredeemed gift cards has specific accounting treatment that most salon owners never learn about.
Product Inventory Tracking
Product Inventory Tracking
We track what comes in, what sells, and what’s left. You see actual retail margins and identify shrinkage problems before they get out of hand. Product costs get matched against revenue so you know if retail is worth the shelf space.
Deferred Revenue
Deferred Revenue
Gift cards and packages get recorded as liabilities until services are delivered. Revenue is recognized when you actually perform the work. Your books reflect what you’ve earned, not just what’s landed in your bank account.
Order From the Chaos
Monthly books closed on time means you know where you stand. Revenue by service category. Retail performance. Booth rental income. Expenses broken down so you can see what’s eating into profit. No more guessing until tax time forces you to figure it out in a panic.
When your records are organized, tax preparation becomes straightforward. Your accountant receives categorized reports instead of a pile of bank statements and questions about what various deposits were for. The focus shifts from reconstructing the past to planning for the future.
Monthly Financial Clarity
Monthly Financial Clarity
Books reconciled and closed every month. You see how the business performed while there’s still time to make adjustments. Problems get caught early instead of discovered at year end when it’s too late to fix anything.
Tax Season Without the Scramble
Tax Season Without the Scramble
Clean records mean your CPA can do their job efficiently. You understand what you owe and why. No surprises, no panic, no extensions filed because nobody could get the numbers together in time.
Full-Service Bookkeeping for Greater Phoenix
The Next Step:
A Quick Conversation
Tell us about your situation. We'll listen, ask a few questions, and give you a clear price to handle the work.